This past weekend we went to the Decatur Book Festival where we met both Hannah Pittard and Rebecca Makkai, who we recently featured on a Q&A, at a panel about communities experiencing collective grief. ave you ever wanted to be a fly on the wall and listen in on two intelligent woman talking about literature? That's what it felt like to hear Rebecca and Hannah's conversation about their novels. You can check out Rebecca Makkai's Q&A here, but today is all about Hannah Pittard's latest novel Visible Empire.
Read moreQ&A | Roshani Chokshi
One of our favorite YA fantasy worlds that we've discovered in the past few years is Roshani Chokshi's Star-Touched Queen series. The first two novels give us a look at two very different sisters and their own discovery that the world around may be more magical than it seems. Now Roshani is back with a short story collection set in the same fictional universe. She tells us a little bit about why she wanted to return to this world and give us few more glimpses into these characters' lives.
Read moreQ&A | Rebecca Makkai
Sometimes an author creates such a vivid story that it stays with you long after you turn the last page. Rebecca Makkai achieves that with her latest novel The Great Believers. In this story she weaves together elements across nearly a century of time, from 1920s Paris to 1980s Chicago and back to Paris in 2015. We had an opportunity to chat with Rebecca about what inspired The Great Believers and how she approached writing such an ambitious novel.
Read moreQ&A | Sarah Beth Durst
Over the past few years, we've been reading Sarah Beth Durst's Queens of Renthia series, each new installment even better than the last. Every book features strong female heroines facing incredible odds, showing women of different ages and backgrounds forced to make difficult decisions that may change the course of their lives—and the fate their kingdoms. In our Q&A, Durst shares some insights into her female-focused fantasy novels and the inspiration behind their conception.
Read moreQ&A | Sujata Massey
The moment we heard about Perveen, India's first woman lawyer who solves crimes, we knew we had to get our hands on this book. And The Widows of Malabar Hill didn't disappoint. Sujata Massey paints a beautiful historical landscape of 1920s Bombay and the many cultures living there at the time. In our Q&A, Massey describes the inspiration for Perveen, her research process, and how she goes about writing her novels.
Read moreQ&A | Bethany C. Morrow
We enjoyed the opportunity to chat with Bethany Morrow about her novel MEM. A truly unique novel written from the perspective of a person's single memory, MEM asks hard questions about who we are and what it means to be human.
Read moreQ&A | Ramona Ausubel
Ramona Ausubel is a prolific writer of both novels and short stories. In her most recent short story collection Awayland, she structures the book around four different lands: Bay of Hungers, The Cape of Persistent Hope, The Lonesome Flats, and The Dream Isles. In her mystical and fantastical voice, she uses these geographical areas to explore themes like relationships, leaving, and motherhood. In this Q&A, Ausubel talks about why she returns to the theme of motherhood in particular, how her writing style changes with the format, and what she's working on now.
Read moreQ&A | Xhenet Aliu
In her debut novel, Xhenet Aliu tackles the meaning of what it means to know where one comes from. Brass follows a mother and daughter as they each come of age in small-town Connecticut. Both seek to leave their hometown, but the trials of young adulthood make their dreams feel so much farther away. Aliu talked with us about her inspiration for her debut novel and the importance of featuring working-class Americans in contemporary literature.
Read moreQ&A | Lynn Michell, Founder & Director of Linen Press
In honor of International Women's Day this week, we talked to Lynn Michell, the founder and director of Linen Press, an indie publisher in the U.K. that publishes books by women, for women. Lynn shares her inspiration for Linen Press, why she's so passionate about publishing women's stories, and what we, as readers, can do to support women-focused indie presses like Linen Press.
Read moreQ&A | Beth Ann Fennelly
Beth Ann Fennelly is an incredible writer whose most recent project is Heating & Cooling: 52 Micro-Memoirs (W.W. Norton). We adored these little peeks into Beth Ann’s life and experiences. Even though these memoirs are very short, the depth and breadth of the observations are just stunning. You might be able to read this book in one sitting, but we guarantee that you will want to revisit it over and over again. Beth Ann talked to us about her writing process and how to find the extraordinary in the everyday.
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